The renewable production of commodity chemicals is greatly needed at this time in view of increasing pollution in many parts of the world as a result of a substantial dependency on the combustion of fossil fuels for most energy demands. Renewable hydrogen production, in particular, is a significant need of the future, since hydrogen can enable modern society to meet its transportation needs and minimize extensive use of fossil fuels, thereby positively impacting climate change. Hydrogen is essential for production of drop-in fuels from biomass via the pyrolysis route (Jones, S., et al., Production of gasoline and diesel from biomass via fast pyrolysis, hydrotreating and hydrocracking: A design case. 2009, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory). Hydrogen is required to deoxygenate the biomass to generate high heating value fuels. It can also be used as a stand-alone fuel for vehicles employing fuel cells.
Reforming of fossil fuels, such as natural gas, is currently the most used method for providing hydrogen for bio-fuel production at the present time. Conversion of the bio-oil generated during the pyrolysis process requires significant amounts of natural gas to convert it to fuels equivalent to gasoline and diesel. In turn, the use of natural gas results in an increase in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (Spath, P. L. and M. K. Mann, Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Production via Natural Gas Steam Reforming. 2001, NREL: Golden, Colo.).
A significant component of the product bio-oil is made up of oxygenated compounds, such as acetic acid, propionic acid, levoglucosan, hydroxyacetone, and furfural, many of which are water-soluble (e.g., Ortiz-Toral, P. J., Steam Reforming of water-soluble fast pyrolysis bio-oil: Studies on bio-oil composition effect, carbon deposition and catalyst modifications, Biological Engineering 2011, Iowa State University: Ames, Iowa). The carboxylic acids render the bio-oil a pH of 3 or lower, making it corrosive. Other oxygenates include polar molecules, which induce phase separation over time and make the bio-oil unstable. Thus, there would be a particular benefit in a process that could generate hydrogen gas and other useful products from such polar oxygenates that are otherwise generally of low value.